Leaders of community colleges in California recently announced plans for new graduation targets, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Education officials throughout the state proposed that the number of certificates awarded to graduating students should increase by one million by 2020 as part of the new goals. California's 112 community colleges graduate around one-fifth of the country's total number of college graduates.

The recommendations will be officially announced next week to coincide with the publication of a report by the Commission for the Future, an advisory panel of leaders from the Community College League of California.

The proposed targets would mean that community colleges will have to increase the number of students successfully graduating from individual community colleges from around 1,200 per year to approximately 3,500 annually.

The ambitious proposals are part of President Barack Obama's American Graduation Initiative to raise the number of students graduating from community colleges by five million over the next 10 years. According to the official website of the White House, the plans will help the economy by increasing the number of skilled graduates in the workforce to tackle unemployment shortfalls.

Are you in favor of these new graduation initiatives? What do you think could be done to convince most students to fill out a college application and earn a degree?